The Beacon's Shade
by GhostPhoenix113
Summary: Can a new team of Huntsman and Huntresses in training be lead by a young man accustomed to remaining in the shadows, or will he prove to be too distant to lead them?
1. Chapter 1: The Shadow's Storm

Vale can be a dangerous place at night, and even more so in the industrial district. The police assigned there were typically among the near-dropouts and other incompetent officers. Why a young man would go there was beyond anyone. Yet, there he was, Aiden Sturmwind, a young man with short, brown hair, wearing a dark gray jacket with the hood down, a plain black t-shirt, a pair of faded jeans with a belt that had a number of cylindrical objects on it, and there was a long weapon, with what looked like a sword's blade, but had a body more similar to that of a rifle and a skeleton stock, that was slung over his right shoulder. As he walked, he seemed to find the shadows easily, seemingly able to blend in with the dark surroundings the way a chameleon blends into the forest.

Suddenly, as he passed by an alleyway, Aiden felt the distinctive cold metal of a gun barrel being pressed into the back of his head.

_Great_, he thought, more annoyed than scared, letting out a sigh. _And I thought it was going to be a quiet night._

"All right kid," his assailant whispered into his ear, "No sudden moves. Into the alley. Now."

Aiden silently complied. As he stepped into the alley, he saw three more thugs, armed with a basic assortment of short swords and light firearms.

"Turn out your pockets. Throw everything on the ground in front of you," The thug said attempting to sound threatening.

Aiden stood motionless.

"I'll give you one chance," Aiden replied, menace creeping ever so slightly into his voice. "Throw your weapons down and walk away. If you don't, this will go very badly for you."

"You're threatening us?" One of the other thugs laughed.

"No, I'm not."

"Then what was that?"

"Your only warning."

Suddenly, Aiden's form shifted and vanished into thin air. The thug that had originally assailed him fired of a series of three shots, hitting nothing but the wall at the back of the alley. Several long seconds later, there was a loud **_CRACK _**from behind them, and the leader felt a single bullet whiz by his ear. The air shifted to reveal Aiden standing at the entrance to the alley with the hood on his jacket up, the blades on the front of the item he had been carrying parted to reveal the barrel of a gun.

"I warned you," he said, his voice dangerously quiet.

They charged him. One of the thugs swung his sword from above, trying to end the fight before it began, and Aiden quickly shifted his weapon back into its sword form as he parried the blow. He forced the attacker's blade back into the air, and smacked him in the side of the head with the flat of his own blade, knocking the thug unconscious. His next opponent attempted to attack from behind, swinging the blade from Aiden's left. He crouched under the blow, and he felt it lightly shift his hood as he did so. He turned around and fired a single shot into the man's knee. He fell to the ground and Aiden hit him in the face with his elbow, knocking the second one out of the fight.

By this point, the remaining two thugs decided that it would be easier to simply shoot him, so they drew their guns and opened fire. Once again, thought, their guns found nothing but air, as Aiden had already shrouded himself and ducked out of the way again. His rifle sounded off two more times, and then there were a total of four unconscious thugs laying in the alleyway.

"You idiots are lucky that I was using training slugs," Aiden whispered to himself as he looked at the sorry state in front of him

He pushed the front end of the weapon downward, seemingly in an attempt to break it, but instead the weapon simply opened to reveal a cylindrical object the same as the ones on his belt. He pulled the cylinder out and inspected the front of it.

"Empty," he grumbled to himself as he tossed it away.

Reaching down, he pulled another one off of the belt, inserted it into the space left by the previous one, and twisted it in its place, causing the interior of the weapon as well as the interior edges of the separated blades to glow faintly. Satisfied, he closed the rifle once more and slung it back over his shoulder. As he was about to walk away however, he heard a siren blare behind him. Letting out another sigh, he turned around to face a police car as two officers stepped out.

"Some residents reported gunshots nearby here. I don't suppose you have an idea what's going on?" One of the officers asked, obviously bored.

Aiden looked at the four unconscious thugs laying nearby. "Well, I _do_ know what was going on," he said, sarcasm coloring his voice.

They both stared at each other for a moment.

"Oh, you want me to _tell_ you why these four are passed out on the ground," Aiden said finally, "Well, they attempted to mug me, so I defended myself. None of them are dead, but I imagine they'll all wake up tomorrow rather sore."

"Well, just be more careful," the other officer said, shaking his head in annoyance. "These streets can be very dangerous, especially at night."

"Well, that wouldn't be a problem if you would do your jobs," Aiden muttered to himself, looking at the ground.

"What was that?" The first officer asked.

Aiden looked back up. "Nothing officer. Just thinking to myself that I need to get to the airship dock before tomorrow morning."

"Might I inquire as to why?"

"I'm starting at Beacon Academy," Aiden said. " I just graduated from Signal, and since my first day at Beacon is tomorrow, I want to make sure I get to the Airship dock before morning."

"So, you're going to be a Huntsmen?"

"Hopefully, yeah."

"Well, no offense, but you don't really look the type."

Aiden looked back to the unconscious thugs. "Looks can be deceiving."

"I guess. Well, try harder to stay out of trouble."

Aiden smiled. "Easier said than done in this part of Vale."

The officers merely sighed as they loaded the attempted thieves into the back of the car and drove off. Aiden started walking once more in the direction of the airship docks.

He awoke the next morning on a bench outside of the airship dock to the sounds of people walking and talking as they made their way to the airships. As he opened his eyes, he noted many of them appeared to be near his age. He got up and found a girl with long rust-colored hair that was tied up into a simple ponytail that flowed gently down to her upper back. She was dressed in a dark blue shirt with black pants, and over the shirt she wore what appeared to be a form of leather armor that was black as midnight.

"You wouldn't happen to know if this is the airship to Beacon, would you?" He asked calmly.

The girl cocked her head slightly, looking around to where Aiden stood.

"Yeah," she replied, "It is. Today your first day too?"

Aiden matched her pace. "Yeah, it is," He said, shifting his weapon to be a little more comfortable on his shoulder. "Are you nervous?"

"I won't lie, I am a little," the girl responded, looking down a little. "You?"

"Honestly?" He replied, laughing slightly. "After nearly getting mugged last night? Sitting in a classroom taking notes seems like a nice change of pace."

"You were nearly mugged?"

"Yeah. Four guys. Wasn't even a fair fight. At least not for them."

"You're awfully casual about beating four guys in a fight."

Aiden shrugged. "Not really worth dwelling on," He said dismissively. "They're behind bars now for assault and attempted robbery. Focusing on it would simply be acknowledging that they managed to get to me, even if I did beat them."

The two stepped through an open door and into the observation room of the airship. Over by one of the windows, they saw a blonde girl squeeze another, smaller, girl, with black hair the was tipped red, in a hug, followed by a near-shout of "Aw, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me!"

_That's Ruby Rose_, Aiden thought to himself. _I thought she still had two more years left at Signal._

"What's up?" the girl he had been talking to asked, noticing Aiden had become lost in thought.

"Hm? Oh, nothing. I just found it interesting that those two sisters would be attending Beacon together," He replied pointing in the direction of the two girls.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well," Aiden said, choosing his words carefully, "The younger of the two, the one with the black and red hair? She was a student at Signal academy last year, like I was. She was among the top of her class, but she was two years behind me, which means that she got pushed ahead two years."

"You attended Signal?"

"Yeah not many other places for me to go." He replied, attempting to hide the pain in his voice.

"What do you mean by 'other places for you to go?'"

"Kind of a personal matter. I hope you understand."

She sighed. "I guess. Well, anyway, I've got to run," she said, looking across the deck to where another pair of incoming students stood. " A couple of my friends are waiting for me. Talk to you later?"

"Yeah, sure," Aiden said replied nonchalantly.

Just as she started to walk away, however, he spoke up one more time. "By the way, I never got your name."

She looked back, smiling slightly. "Aurora Caelum. You?"

"Aiden Sturmwind," he replied, flashing a quick smile of his own.

"Well then, I'll see you around, Aiden."

"You too."

Aiden leaned against a wall near one of the windows. _Something gives me the feeling that I'll be seeing her sooner rather than later, _he thought as he looked out over the city.

**AN: Well, here it is. My first ever FF (on this site at least). I'm trying to to write these to be basically be running beside the adventures of team RWBY, so I'll be trying to have one chapter per episode. I'll also try to have this done before Vol. 2 goes to its web release. Let me know what you all think and if there's anything I can change/improve! (and please don't ask about character backgrounds. All will be revealed in time)**


	2. Chapter 2: The Shade Gathers

Aiden leaned against a wall towards the back of the airship's observation room as it began to glide gently into the main airship dock. As he got up, he noticed Aurora standing near the entrance to the ship, accompanied by one other girl with jet black hair, pale-white skin, dressed in a black shirt with sleeves that came down to her elbows and on the back had the image of a torch on her back, a pair of plain black pants, with a pair of sheathed daggers attached to a belt that had hilts that almost looked like keys. Standing on the otherside of the unknown girl was a young man near Aiden's age who had platinum-blonde hair that came down to his shoulders, and wore what appeared to be heavy plate armor that had a storm engraved into the chest plate with a deep crimson cape attatched at the shoulders, and what looked like a shotgun fused with a warhammer strapped across his back. Aiden pulled his weapon's shoulder strap as he briefly considered joining them, but when he saw the two people he didn't know holding hands, he decided against it.

He stepped out of the airship and was immediately greeted by the sight of another young man with blonde hair, a black hoodie with a number of armored plates strapped to his arms and chest, tattered light blue jeans, and a sword sheathed at his side standing over a nearby trash can and groaning. Aiden walked slowly past, feeling a little bit of pity for the poor kid. He shifted his once more and stopped to look at Beacon itself.

_Certainly is impressive_, he thought to himself, walking towards the prestigious school. _I bet the central tower would be perfect for taking long range shots from._

As he finished that thought, he heard a high pitched sneeze, followed by the distinctive sound of a dust explosion behind him, forcing him to wince a little.

"Unbelievable!" Came a shrill shout a moment later. "This is exactly the type of thing I was talking about!"

"I'm really, really sorry!" came Ruby's voice.

Aiden turned around to see none other than Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company herself, yelling at the poor girl. As he started to go back see if he could lend some aid to Ruby, however, he saw another girl, whose only truly distinguishing feature was a bow wrapped over the top of her head, pick up a small canister of dust and walk up to them. As a result, he decided that the safest course of action was for him to simply move on. Before he could continue further onto the campus grounds, however, he heard someone else call out.

"Hey, Aiden!" a familiar female voice said. "Why don't you come walk with us?"

Aiden turned to see Aurora walking up to him with her two friends.

"Eh, why not," he replied shrugging slightly. "Certainly will be a lot easier to find my way around here with four people as opposed to just one."

"I imagine we're just as lost as you are," the young man said with a laugh as he stopped near where Aiden stood. "Donar Lyn by the way. My better half over there is Hecate Athenia."

"Hi," the girl said as she stopped next to Donar, her voice almost a whisper.

"Aiden Sturmwind," Aiden replied.

"Pretty unusual looking weapon you got there," Donar said, looking at the item Aiden had strapped to his shoulder. "Looks pretty heavy."

Aidne shook his head. "It's actually reasonably light. I built it with the lightest materials I could."

"Wait, you built that?" Aurora said, surprised.

"Yeah," Aiden replied, nodding, "Everyone who attended Signal Academy was required to forge their own weapon. Might have gone a little overboard in the design of mine, but it does what I need it to."

"Which is?" Donar asked, tilting his head a little.

Aiden smiled a mischievous looking smile.

"Punching though a Death Stalkers armored plates with a single shot."

Donar backed up slightly.

"Can it really?"

Aiden shrugged.

"Haven't had the chance to personally test the theory yet, but it cuts trough most modern armor quite nicely. What about you? That hammer has got to be tough to lift," Aiden said, pointing at the weapon on Doanr's back.

"Yeah, but so is heavy plate," he laughed.

"I guess. What about you, Hecate?"

"Well, I've got these two daggers," she whispered as she unsheathed the weapons.

"Very elegant," Aiden replied, admiring the the spiraling designs engraved on the blades. "Did you carve those designs yourself?"

"Yeah, I did," she replied quietly as she held one of the blades up so Aiden could look at the engraving more closely.

"Impressive," Aiden side, his eyes widening slightly. "Not many people can turn a weapon that small into a work of art, but you pulled it off quite well."

"Thanks," she said, perking up a little.

"So, I don't suppose you have any idea where we're supposed to go?" Aurora asked.

Aiden chuckled a little. "If I knew that, I wouldn't have had a chance to talk to you guys."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, I don't like being late. Why do you think I was sleeping on a bench outside the airship dock?"

"Because you were too lazy to find a real bed?"

The group laughed.

"Come on," Aiden said after nearly a minute of laughing. "I'll bet we're supposed to be in that large tower over in the center of the academy."

* * *

**AN: Well, second entry. Yeah. I updated the summary as well so as to remove any possible confusion that I might be trying to insert a character into team RWBY. Lemme know what you all think!**

**Also, please don't expect me to update my FF('s?) as frequently as I am right now, as I have class starting again in a little while, and won't have nearly as much time to do any writing. Plus, I want to make sure my story can at least line up with RWBY canon even if it isn't actually such, and so I won't be able to write for Volume 2 until Rooster Teeth releases each episode on their site.**


	3. Chapter 3: The First Night

"See? I told you it was in the dome!" Aurora said, a hint of triumph in his voice as the group stepped into the large auditorium.

"Yeah, and you also thought we should try jumping the roof you thought the entrance was on the other side." Aiden muttered angrily, looking slightly defeated.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Aiden paused as they saw the crowd that had already gathered. "Let's try to get as close to the front as possible. I don't want to miss anything important."

They all walked together to an area as close to the stage as possible. After nearly a minute, a good portion of which was spent listening to Weiss Schnee yell at Ruby again, Ozpin finally walked up to the microphone.

"I'll... Keep this brief," the professor started.

* * *

"Well, that was bracing," Aiden muttered, turning to the group he was with after the speech finished.

"Anyone else think he seemed a little distracted?" Aurora asked quitely.

Donar nodded. "He didn't seem like he was entirely...there."

"Agreed." Hecate said.

Aiden shifted nervously. "So, should we start filing out?"

"Sounds good," Aurora replied. "I believe Goodwitch said that we'd be in the ballroom?"

"I believe so, yeah."

"Well, sounds like that's where we're headed then," Aurora finished as she turned to leave the auditorium.

* * *

Aiden sat on the mattress he had been provided staring intently at the chess board. After nearly a minute, he moved one of the white knights into the same space as one of black's bishops, removing the latter piece from the board.

"So, I've gotta ask, what exactly are you doing?" Aurora said, having been watching him for the past few minutes.

Aiden looked up for a brief moment. "Playing chess," he replied bluntly.

She paused. "With whom?"

"Myself," Aiden replied again, this time as he moved one of black's rooks to where he had moved white's knight. Aurora merely cocked her head slightly. "I'm playing both sides. Ordinarily, you only know what your plan is," he explained. "You can make an assumption as to what your opponent is doing, but you never really know. It's basically an exercise in guessing based on given information. Here I have perfect knowledge of my plans for either side, so I have to adapt my plans accordingly. I can't simply guess what my opponents going to do and plan to that. I actually have a chance to try and build an unbeatable plan for either side. Haven't succeeded yet though."

"How often do you win with either side?"

"I've won with white fourteen times, black fifteen, and stalemated seventeen games."

Aurora was about to respond when she was interrupted by Weiss Schnee's shrill shouting again.

Aiden started to remove the chess pieces from the board and began to pack it up.

_Not going to be able finish this game under these conditions_, he thought to himself with a sigh. He looked up and saw Ruby and Weiss arguing again.

"Twenty Lien says those two are going to be a great couple someday," Aiden said, nodding slightly in their direction.

"Weiss and that other girl?" Aurora replied, slightly shocked. "Are you serious?"

"Yep. Why not? Stranger things have happened."

She sighed. "I doubt it. There is no way Weiss would ever be able to even stand that other girl long enough for them to even get to know each other."

Aiden rolled over in his mattress. "You never know," he replied with a slight shrug as he closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.

* * *

**A/N This one was a little shorter. Wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go with it. Had to delay writing a couple days for a few reasons, of which work was one of the least I'll try to have the next one up a little faster.**


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